SpaceX's first private flight will put a 29-year-old cancer survivor into orbit

[Shawn Knight]

Why it matters: Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN, is on track to become the youngest American to ever orbit Earth. She will also be the first person with a prosthetic body part to visit space and one of the first non-professional astronauts to do so.

Earlier this year, billionaire Jared Isaacman announced he was chartering a private flight from SpaceX. Rather than invite friends or family to join him on the trip, Isaacman elected to donate two of the four seats on the spacecraft to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The pediatric treatment and research facility was founded by entertainer Danny Thomas in 1962 and provides cost-free care to children and young adults battling cancer and other catastrophic diseases. The hospital is using one of the seats on the trip as a prize for a sweepstakes; the other was to go to a frontline health care worker at the facility. Arceneaux was the lucky recipient.

When Arceneaux was 10, she was treated for bone cancer at St. Jude. Doctors had to install metal rods in place of some of the damaged bones in her left leg, surgery that would normally disqualify her from space travel.

The private flight, scheduled for later this year, isn’t destined for the International Space Station. Rather, the spacecraft will orbit Earth for a few days before heading back home. The remaining seat on the flight will go to an entrepreneur as part of a contest being hosted by Shift4 Payments, the business Isaacman owns.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88704-spacex-first-private-flight-put-29-year-old.html

 

[Axle Grease]

I'd love to see a Flat Earther on one of these SpaceX flights. I know... they're grossly ignorant and overbearing, but the reaction would be priceless.

 

[OortCloud]

What happens when one of these space tourism flights goes bad? It's bound to happen - Boeing can't even keep planes in the sky these SpaceX flights are a whole order of magnitude more complex...

I think Elon needs to go up and down 20 times first just to make sure its all ok before he starts taking money from members of the public. He can wave at his Tesla while he's up there.

 

[Reehahs]

I'd love to see a Flat Earther on one of these SpaceX flights. I know... they're grossly ignorant and overbearing, but the reaction would be priceless.

Hopefully, leave them in orbit to forever confirm that they were wrong.

 

[Uncle Al]

Yep, I'd take that free ride as long as they let me take my camera along ...... I refuse to buy post cards when I can make my own .....

 

[terzaerian]

I'd love to see a Flat Earther on one of these SpaceX flights. I know... they're grossly ignorant and overbearing, but the reaction would be priceless.

They always have some mental gymnastics to explain it. It's pointless.

That said, I don't understand the obsession people have with them. It's a stupid belief, sure, but it doesn't have any bearing on pretty much anything beyond a small society of cranks on the internet. Compare that to anti-vax, which does have potential ramifications on public health and has high-profile members of the media boosting it.

If you're going to tilt, go for dragons, not windmills.

 

[koblongata]

What happens when one of these space tourism flights goes bad? It's bound to happen - Boeing can't even keep planes in the sky these SpaceX flights are a whole order of magnitude more complex...

I think Elon needs to go up and down 20 times first just to make sure its all ok before he starts taking money from members of the public. He can wave at his Tesla while he's up there.

That's why SpaceX blow up lots prototypes... Unlike Boeing.

 

[poohbear]

Is this the future? Virgin Galactic's stock might go through the roof if this takes off. (ticker: SPCE)

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Absof#ck!nglutely would I accept a free ride into space. I'd ask them to drop me off at Mars too so I can get away from this sh!thole of a planet.

 

[defaultluser]

Is this the future? Virgin Galactic's stock might go through the roof if this takes off. (ticker: SPCE)

Not for a company backed by Richard Branson. He cares less about the technical details of taking two separate ships to orbit magically profitable, and more about selling people on the show (by hiring his second former Disney board member in 7 months!)

The man has no long-term vision, which is why every single enterprise he owns (aside from Virgin Brands licensing) is consistently losing him money.

He has a long history of attaching his name to a company, charging them a licensing free to use the name, and then running them into the ground, while convincing investors to drop millions! That is why I say you should look elsewhere for a successful SpaceX tourism competitor (you may get a few flights, but will go out of business after he's done bleeding the pig.)

 

[Axle Grease]

They always have some mental gymnastics to explain it. It's pointless.

That said, I don't understand the obsession people have with them. It's a stupid belief, sure, but it doesn't have any bearing on pretty much anything beyond a small society of cranks on the internet. Compare that to anti-vax, which does have potential ramifications on public health and has high-profile members of the media boosting it.

If you're going to tilt, go for dragons, not windmills.

Sending anti-vax whackjobs into orbit has no chance of changing their minds.

 

[mbk34]

I'd absolutely love to go up. I'm sure I could come up with a reason for them to send me ... first beard in space?

 

[Puiu]

What happens when one of these space tourism flights goes bad? It's bound to happen - Boeing can't even keep planes in the sky these SpaceX flights are a whole order of magnitude more complex...

I think Elon needs to go up and down 20 times first just to make sure its all ok before he starts taking money from members of the public. He can wave at his Tesla while he's up there.

They'll ground the project until they figure out what went wrong and do it again. Unlike normal commercial flights, this does come with known considerable risks.

 

[wiyosaya]

IMO, the latest in Musk's "see me do something" marketing scam. While it might be nice for her, its even better for Musk as it looks like him doing something "humane" but its really marketing - just like him launching that Tesla on Falcon Heavy a few years back.

I might take a free-ride into space if it were not SpaceX. Their record with "Starship" is dismal to say the least.